Need filler content for your Zend Framework (ZF) application? Most clients never give the developer copy up front so it’s always hard show what the site is to look like without some random text. At the beginning of a new application when you are mocking up the html and layout, I like to use static views. I basically create a full static site with Lorem Ipsum content. I hated copying text over and over so I decided to create a quick view helper that will generate the content for you on the fly. You can find the view helper on github. Currently there are four different ways to generate the filler content.

1. Paragraphs
2. Words
3. Bytes
4. and Lists

You can find more information on optional parameters and how to use the view helper at github.

I think of Sarah Palin saying “drill baby drill” when I look at my new shirt. It was one of those shirts you just have to buy and wear to a rally or something. I love it and thinking about wearing it to work sometime!

Sarah Palin – “Drill Baby Drill”

We're bringing oil to American shores

So you are familiar with the WordPress template tag called the_excert() right? If not the tag takes a post and trims it up to display 55 or so words and then adds ellipses to the end. I find this very useful when you just want to display a teaser. In the current Zend Framework project then I am working on for a client I needed just this. So I had to create the custom filter which is really easy. You can find a vast amount of info for Zend Filters here.

Custom Filter – Excerpt

// To call the filter use
$excerpt = new My_Filter_Excerpt();
$excerpt->filter($str); //$str is the string of text

//Put this in your library
class My_Filter_Excerpt implements Zend_Filter_Interface
{
	protected $_wordCount = 55;

	public function filter($data)
	{
		$sentance = explode(" ", $data);
		if (count($sentance) > $this->_wordCount) {
			$sentance = array_splice($sentance, 0, $this->_wordCount);
			$ellipsis = "…";
		}
		$excerpt = implode(" ", $sentance);
		echo $excerpt . $ellipsis;
	}
}

Not sure if anyone has noticed but Google Buzz has an API out. However, our friends at AddThis.com have already added Google Buzz to the sharing menu.

So as everyone knows Google has released Buzz and by now most everyone has it. The number one question is how do I add it to my site so that people can share my content with their buzz friends. Well, if you are running WordPress it’s pretty easy. Head on over to WordPress.org and search for the plugin called Google Buzz for WordPress. If you are not running WordPress you can just use this link and replace out the variables (designated by <<>>)

http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=<<URL>>&title=<<TITLE>>&srcURL=<<SRC>>&srcTitle=<<SRCTITLE>>

Where
URL = Url of the page you want to share
TITLE = Title of the page that you are sharing
SRC = Source of the page that you are sharing. for instance you may share http://www.kapustabrothers.com/ to buzz but found the link and shared it from aol.com so the SRC would be aol.com.
SRCTITLE = The title of the source.

It’s that simple. A box will pop up you can add some tags and some comments and click post. This will post directly to your buzz feed for all your buzzy friends to see.

Next are the icons. What should you use for an icon? Well you can search the net for them but I found some pretty cool simple ones from http://www.chethstudios.net/

All you have to do is wrap the icon with the link and your all set. I suggest setting a rel and a target too if applicable.

Update: Here is another icon that I found floating around on the interwebs.

Enjoy!